NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 13, 2009) -The ETSU baseball team was defeated by conference rival Belmont in game one of a three-game series Friday afternoon at Shelby Field in Nashville, 17-6.

Paul Hoilman (Johnson City, Tenn.) put the Bucs (5-7, 1-3 A-Sun) up 1-0 in the top of the first as he brought in Jacob Fabry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) on a sac fly to deep right field.

Belmont answered scoring three runs in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Daniel Wagner and Matt Zeblo to make the score 3-1.

The Bruins added four more runs in the bottom of the third on a two run home run Brandon McCall, a solo home run by Wagner and an RBI single by Packy Elkins to put Belmont up 7-1.

Fabry cut into the Belmont lead in the top of the fifth as he singled up the middle driving in Cory Betterson (Atlanta, Ga.) to cut the lead to 7-2.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Bruins increased their lead to 10-2 on a two run single by Dylan Craig and an RBI ground out by Derek Hamblen.

Matt Hamann increased the Belmont lead in the bottom of the sixth on a grounder to short to make the score 11-2.

Matthew Scruggs (Knoxville, Tenn.) crushed a ball over the fence in left in the top of the seventh for his first home run of the season to cut the Bruin lead to 11-3. Later in the inning, Troy Mendez (Roswell, Ga.) added a two-run home run over the fence in right to make the score 11-5.

Belmont added six runs on three hits and two ETSU errors in the bottom of the seventh to increase its lead to 17-5.

Bo Reeder (Cookeville, Tenn.) scored on a Bruin error after tripling to center to make the final 17-6 Belmont.

The Bucs were led offensively by Fabry and Mendez as Fabry went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Mendez was 2-for-2 with a two-run home run.

ETSU is back in action tomorrow at 2 p.m. EST against Belmont in game two of the series. Please visit www.ETSUBucs.com for more information on ETSU baseball and all other Buccaneer athletic news.